Kirk Leonard! Of course, I remember you! How could I not? You were that kid who got in trouble a lot with Mrs. Goodwin and was sent to Mr. Quayle’s office on probably more than one occasion.

YES! lol

Maybe you were (are) ADHD and weren’t diagnosed or medicated like my Ritalin-dosed older sister. (In fact, I was recently diagnosed with some ADD.)

BINGO! Mom realized by 3rd grade that I was struggling.
She took me to psychiatrists, counselors, doctors and even had specialists come to get on the school bus with a carbon monoxide detector! I was prescribed a low dose of Dexedrine in the 4th grade, don’t remember it being all that helpful…
By 5th grade, I was EXTREMELY hyperactive, bouncing off the walls, one time I grabbed the broom out of the classroom closet and played air guitar on it, to the dismay of the class and yes, Mrs. Goodwin…
(I referred to her as “Mrs. Bad-Lose”)

The even bigger memory which I hope you find as amusing and ridiculous as I do is when we came in from a lunch break and you called out in class, “Larry said the f-word.” It turns out that some kids didn’t let me in their basketball game, and I said something like, “Fuck you guys.”

I would have said that too, lol

I was such a good-two-shoes, “I cannot tell a lie” kid that rather than simply deny it, I ‘fessed up, and our Mrs. Patriot, uptight teacher sent me to Mr. Quayle who decided that there should be an after-school meeting with him, Mrs. Goodwin and my mom. There I was, sobbing with my head in arms, ashamed and apologizing… brother! Anyhow, the “punishment” was that since I was the student body president, I would give an apology speech at the next student council meeting which I did. During the car ride home after the parent-teacher meeting, my mom was completely unfazed by any of it, telling me to give the stupid speech and forget about it. It was a total “nothing burger.”

Your Mom is cool 😀

Do you remember any of this?

I don’t remember that… I ratted you out to that monster???
That’s horrible. Cheesy move. My apologies!

So, what happened to you after 5th grade? What do you do? Tell me something about yourself. Just curious. I went to Malaga Cove, moved to the Napa Valley in 8th grade, went to music school in Boston, Miami and L.A., coming back in ’88. I’ve been a full-time musician and music teacher with a side profession in photography. My wife and I with our adorable doggies (no human kids) live in Encino.